


Steel Lantern

by Sii



Category: Destiny (Video Games), Titanfall (Video Games)
Genre: Action/Adventure, All other guardians mentioned are generic and not relevant, BT and Recon are the founding members of the 'protect Jack Cooper' club, Ending Fix, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, I mean it, I'm not sure how I forgot to tag that?, I'm not tagging the Vanguard since they're only mentioned, Jack Cooper is a Guardian, Jack and BT are like blood brothers, No Romance, Not Beta Read, Spoilers for the ending?, Temporary Amnesia, The game has been out a while im not sure its a spoiler anymore, there is more than one single swear word now, there is one single swear word, there may be graphic violence, there may be more characters, they don't even have names
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:08:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23525902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sii/pseuds/Sii
Summary: Jack was dubious. "That's supposed to get us to the City..?" The Ghost ignored him this time to float over and scan the jumpship. Jack followed with some frustration."Vector class Jumpship...it's certainly seen better days. It's got fuel and it's got working thrusters. It won't break orbit but it'll do." Ghost turned to face his Guardian. Jack turned to look in the direction they came from. He was struck so intensely but this sudden dire worry that he had left something very, very important behind."We can come back, right?" He asked as he materialized into the pilot seat of the spacecraft. His Ghost replied without hesitation, "of course."When BT sacrificed himself, Jack wouldn't let him do so alone. Now they're in what seems to be the future, or a whole different universe entirely. But Jack has to get his pre-rez memories back first.8/15: Epilogue in progress
Relationships: BT-7274 & Jack Cooper (Titanfall), Ghost & Guardian (Destiny)
Comments: 25
Kudos: 95





	1. Lost in Light

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my very first Fanfiction posted. Ever. Please be nice.  
> I was disheartened by the lack of crossovers that had Jack Cooper and BT as the main characters. I figured of all the fandoms I was familiar enough with to write about, Destiny 2 felt the easiest to mesh. No, Cooper is not a Titan.  
> Please enjoy! Constructive Criticism is always welcome!  
> 

Jack wasn't sure how many bad days and bad wake ups he'd had before, but this one was by far the worst he could remember.

Not that he remembered much.

"Welcome back, Guardian! Take it easy standing up…You've been dead for a long, long time."

"D..dead?" Jack moved his head slowly to squint at the small shape in the air. It had several pyramids surrounding it, with a blue light in the center. He's pretty sure he'd never seen anything like it, but the small amount of safety he feels when seeing the blue glow makes him wonder.

"Yes. I'm a Ghost. Specifically, I'm your Ghost. I brought you back to life. The Traveler sent me out to find someone to be a suitable Guardian, and that's you." The Ghost paused in its explanation to turn and scan the surroundings, which prompted Jack to do the same. He was in some sort of wilderness, alternating between steep rocky cliffs and humid forest before his eyes; waterfalls fell in the distance. It was raining lightly. The landscape made him uneasy, but not quite like deja vu. Even then, he recognized nothing. Not surprising, he'd guess, considering he was dead for an indiscriminate amount of time prior. Which led him to wonder, what did he remember? He remembered his name, Jack Cooper. He was male. He had a strong dislike of free falling. Not much to go on, but better than nothing.

"-sure what you're wearing, but it's not safe here, Guardian. We should get moving." Jack tuned back in on hearing the Ghost-did it have a name?- mention him.

"Where are we going?" He asked, standing carefully. He grabbed the small pistol beside him, as beat up as it was, it could still provide a weapon of some kind. His plate armor vest provided an odd looking knife with a screen on the end of the handle, but hey, a knife's a knife. "What's the Traveler?"

"We need to make it back to the Last City. There the Vanguard can get you caught up and geared up. We can discuss the Traveler later, away from danger." The Ghost turned to scan the horizon once more, pausing when there was a faint shriek in the distance.

"Hold still." Jack jolted in surprise as the Ghost vanished, but he didn't wait long before suddenly he could hear it echoing in his head er, helmet? That wasn't as foreign to him as it probably should have been. "Don't worry, I'm hidden in your suit. We are going to get you a Jumpship. Trust me."

And Jack found that he did.

They moved fast. Now that Jack was used to being alive again, they could make good time cutting through the forest to reach the outpost that Ghost-Jack still needed to ask if he had a name- had detected some 80 klicks out. As they were moving, Ghost informed him he was resurrected, or rez'd in Guardian lingo, as a type of Guardian called a "hunter", a group of skills given by the Traveler specializing in mobility and maneuverability. Jack felt like that was a good fit, but he couldn't quite explain why when he was asked. That is, until the chasm.

"Hmmm, it's too big of a jump. There aren't any platforms we could use either...We should head back, find another way across." But Jack wasn't quite listening. The deep chasm beneath them seemed insignificant now. The rocks rose smoothly on either side until the ledge across the way that led to their destination. This was child's play. His hand pressed a button on his jumpkit before he took a good number of steps back. He was going to need a running start, after all.

"Guardian, what are you-" Jack ran, and leapt. His feet hit one side of the chasm and he glided across it like water instead of sliding down the wall; just before he lost his momentum and fell he jumped again, running along the other side. It was an easy jump now to the ledge, and he made it with room to spare. How on earth did he do that? It came naturally to him, like he'd done it hundreds of times before. The short adrenaline rush was thrilling yet fading quickly. Considering how surprised his Ghost sounded right now, he assumed that wasn't a Guardian thing. Whoever he was before he died, he seemed cool.

"I don't know. Honestly, I don't. I saw the walls, and just...jumped. Muscle memory or something." Jack responded to the barrage of questions as he entered a clearing, looking about. "This it?" It was a roughly cut clearing with a run down concrete building offset by a landing pad. The power of nature was starting to creep back in, destroying any sidewalk and nearly uprooting the building with vines.

His Ghost appeared, looking like he was decidedly not done with the questioning, but turned to inspect the facility. "This is it. My scanners show a Starship not very far from the entrance." It vanished again. "Eyes up Guardian, I also detected the Fallen."

"Fallen. Uh, got it."

Jack quickly found out what the Fallen were. Freaking aliens. Aliens! He also found out that his pistol was _awesome_. It had _tracking bullets_. He only needed to lock on using the convenient adaptive module in his helmet, and each bullet would hit each target. Headshots, too. Jack vowed to never let go of this gun. The fact he didn't seem to run out of ammo ever was icing on the cake.

"How far've we got Ghost?!" Jack demanded from behind cover, taking the brief respite to reload. "Head left down the hall, last corridor on your right! Ship's in a huge hangar bay, you can't miss it!" Was the prompt reply. He poked his head over his cover and saw an opportunity to dash to the doorway. He took it; as he leapt over he once again acted on some sort of muscle memory, activating an invisibility cloak. It lasted just long enough for him to slide through the opening, out of view of the Fallen who had him pinned. Jack ignored the entourage of questions from the Ghost as he sprinted down the hall; he used the corner wall to change directions faster instead of stopping to turn. Even though Jack wanted to get the hell out of dodge, he still had enough training to enter the hangar with his gun raised and eyes sweeping the room. Thankfully, there was nothing but a very, very old ship.

Jack was dubious. "That's supposed to get us to the City..?" The Ghost ignored him this time to float over and scan the jumpship. Jack followed with some frustration. "Vector class jumpship...it's certainly seen better days. It's got fuel and it's got working thrusters. It won't break orbit but it'll do." Ghost turned to face his Guardian. His oddball, foreign feeling Guardian. Did that Ghost who revived The Kingslayer, Crota's bane, Slayer of Ghaul feel something like this? Could he tell his Guardian was different? This Ghost wasn't sure. But he had a Guardian to keep alive, and he was going to do everything in his power to do it.

"Let's get out of here, Guardian. Prepare for Transmat." The Ghost disappeared again as the ship hummed tiredly to life. Jack turned to look in the direction they came from. He was struck so intensely but this sudden dire worry that he had left something very, very important behind.

"We can come back, right?" He asked as he materialized into the pilot seat of the spacecraft. His Ghost replied without hesitation, "of course."

The Vanguard was...odd. First, the Hunter Vanguard had apparently died so there was no longer a mentor for him to learn the ropes from. The Titan Vanguard looked like he needed five vacations back to back. But he also looked like he would fight against taking those vacations. From some remnant of a memory, Jack knew exactly the kind of weariness Zavala wasn't showing, and he empathized. The Warlock Vanguard, he liked. Ikora showed a level head while still having the passion it took to lead a collection of apparently undead superhuman soldiers. Which one Jack Cooper was now one of.

He was still getting used to that.

Once his Ghost showed him to each important place in the tower, and there were quite a few stops, it promptly vanished, presumably to finish it's own tasks. Jack really had nothing to do at the tower currently, and since then sun was on its last rays he decided to turn in for the night. Once in his new Suite, Jack immediately peeled off his suit and undergarments. He was pretty sure he had died in it, and it smelled like it. He set aside the armor pieces to clean once he woke up, and threw the rest into the laundry. He contemplated a shower before collapsing onto the bed instead. It had been a very long day between coming back to life, fighting for it, and then having his brain filled with so much knowledge of everything. Jack figured he was due for sleep, and once under the covers he was out.

_"Protocol Three: I will NOT lose another Pilot!" Jack was falling. He was pressed into a metal floor, surrounded by fire. But there was his protector. Hunched over him was [Forgotten], holding a piece of hexagonal housing on one side, and covering the rest of Jack with his own massive machine self. They were inside a ship, but it was on its way to crash into the planet beneath them. Jack felt fear, confusion, trust, anger. The CPU was blaring, "Altitude - Altitude - Altitude - Alt-"_

_"Brace for impact." There wasn't much else Jack could do. His world exploded into fire. "Trust me." But then the fire was gone, replaced with open air somewhere far from the crash surrounded by floating debris and heartache. He was flailing, betrayal aching in his chest as he watched [lost lost ] fall into the core of the Fold, without him. Jack refused to lose him, refused to let the Titan sacrifice himself and leave Jack alone; he found a piece of debris in the air, planted his feet, and leapt with all his might. " **JACK NO-** " _

He woke with a gasp. There may have been a yell, but he wasn't paying attention. A glance at the clock told him it was barely past two in the morning, but he was far too wired to sleep now. The nightmare was fading rapidly already, but he held enough to know one thing. That Mech, that 'Titan', he needed to find it. There was no way that his dream was anything but a memory. Jack had to know. For sure. He spent the rest of the morning cleansing and maintaining his armor pieces, not totally surprised that he knew how to clean it properly. He was surprised to find that his flight suit was washed and seemingly mended. He dressed quickly once he finished maintaining his armor.

"Ghost?" Jack asked to the empty room. As he suspected, his Ghost materialized as if it had been with him the whole time.

"Yes Guardian?" Jack sighed and shook his head.

"Just call me Cooper, bud." He turned to the small machine, finding himself a little amazed that it conveyed surprise and a small amount of sheepishness without a face.

"Sorry, Cooper. What was it you wanted?" The pyramids around the center of the Ghost rotated in a motion that Jack could only interpret as curiosity.

"Do you have a name?"

"A name? No, we are usually given names by our Guardians." Well now Jack felt bad. He needed to find a name for the small thing. But when it came to naming the Ghost, he couldn't bring himself to find a human name.

Recon was not a very natural name, in his opinion. But it felt right.

Maybe it could read his mind, since it seemed to notice his hesitance. "Some Guardians never name their Ghosts. On the contrary, I heard one Ghost was named Pulled Pork, even." That got a snort out of Jack. His naming skills weren’t great, but they were better than that.

"How's Recon? It seems to me that you have all the facts around here." He ventured, an easy smile on his face now that he felt a little in sync with the thing. It felt almost too natural to be linked with a machine. Best not to dwell, that thought led his mind to a melancholy he couldn't define and a brief flash back to his dream.

"Recon...Like reconnaissance. Retrieving information... I like it!" His Ghost, Recon, seemed pleased to be given a name. Proud, even. Jack was relieved; he was definitely in over his head with this situation, it was best to roll with the punches as they came. He felt exhausted just thinking about it. Like he hadn’t had a solid day’s worth of rest for a very long time. Maybe coming back from death was an exhausting experience? It's not like he had anyone to ask. He wasn’t quite ready for one of those ‘fireteams’ Recon had told him about. Jack felt like he was the kind of man to work alone. Mostly. Jack grabbed his helmet and stowed it under his arm as he left the room, his Ghost vanishing in light to follow.

.....

[INITIALIZING EMERGENCY RESTART]//

[RESTART INITIALIZED]//

[BATTERY POWER INSUFFICIENT]//

[REROUTING TO AUXILIARY POWER]//

[AUX POWER ONLINE]//

[START BOOT SEQUENCE]//

[MEMORY BANKS: FUNCTIONAL]//

[OPTICS ARRAY: FUNCTIONAL]//

[SENSORY ARRAY: FUNCTIONAL WITH MINOR DAMAGE]//

[SELF NAVIGATION: NONFUNCTIONAL. CRITICAL, REQUIRES BATTERY TO REPAIR]//

'I require your assistance, Pilot.'

[PILOT NOT WITHIN RANGE]//

[PROTOCOL 1: LINK WITH PILOT]//

SCANNING...

[PILOT NOT FOUND. RETRY SCAN?]

SCANNING...

[PILOT NOT FOUND. RETRY SCAN?]

SCANNING...

[PILOT NOT FOUND. RETRY SCAN?]

[DATA RETRIEVAL: PILOT]//

[PILOT: JACK COOPER, RIFLEMAN 3RD CLASS OF THE MILITIA. MIA PRESUMED KIA.]//

[DATA RETRIEVAL: DATE, TIME SINCE LAST LINK WITH PILOT]//

[TODAY IS 17-8-XXXX. IT HAS BEEN MORE THAN 364635 DAYS SINCE LAST LINK WITH PILOT]//

[REPLAY DATA OF LAST LINK? Y/N]

[Y]

_Systems were failing. He could not even move himself, having to ask his already injured pilot to move him. There were far too many damage alerts, so he made sure they did not impede Jack's visuals. The only way to stop the Ark and the Fold was to destabilize it. Protocol 2: Uphold the Mission._

_The only thing strong enough to destabilize it around them was his own core. He had done the math. The success rate of the collision was over 96%. His pilot's survival rate was less than .0001%. Unacceptable. Protocol Three._

_They climbed into the firing chamber that was used to launch the Ark into the Fold. Now, it will launch them. He spoke to the commander of his plan, knowing she was fully aware of what was going to happen._

_"Don't worry, BT. I'm not going anywhere." Admirable. A worthy pilot. But that would be an outcome that he could not let happen._

_The launcher charged up. They fired. This was the only chance. Odds of pilot survival jump from less than .1% to over 80%._

_He reached into his chassis and pulled his pilot free. Jack howled, and their neural link informed him of how angry and betrayed Jack was. A valid response._

_"BT, what are you **doing**??" He angled himself as best he could for a throw. Took his last look at his pilot, a man who surpassed all expectations._

_"Trust me."_

_He threw Jack. Far, and high. Away from the blast radius. Away from danger. Away from himself. If a titan could feel sadness, he assumed this was closest to it._

_Then, the 20% odds struck. Jack caught himself on a floating rock, a pure coincidental alignment. He leapt in the wrong direction. Towards BT._

_" **JACK NO-** " _

_He collided with the Fold as his pilot collided with him. His programming shut down, and he knew no more._

[DATA RETRIEVAL: LAST PING OF PILOT LOCATION]//

[PILOT WAS MOVED OUTSIDE OF 3 FT RADIUS 28 HOURS AGO. PLAY HIBERNATION DATA? Y/N]

[Y]

With not enough input to start a boot cycle, his optical array would record camera feed of the surroundings in front of him, in case of large threats. The damage in his sensor array prevented a smooth video, as well as preventing sound. He watched in snippets of a small thing floating close, glowing brightly, and the next frame caught was Jack. Alive. He was in the process of inspecting the smart pistol. Then the next frame he was gone. Or had moved out of BT's array. The rest of the footage was uneventful, until he saw a short capture of what appeared to be an alien species. He logged the visual for later.

[SCAN FOR VIABLE BATTERY? Y/N]

[Y]

SCANNING...

[NOT VIABLE]//

SCANNING...

[NOT VIABLE]//

SCANNING…

[NOT VIABLE]//

SCANNING...

[NOT VIABLE]//

SCANNING…

[NO VIABLE BATTERIES WITHIN RANGE]//

[BEGIN BROADCAST? Y/N]

[Y]

[BROADCAST ONLINE: RANGE OF 1000KM]//

[BROADCAST CONTENT 1: .--- .- -.-. -.- ··--··]//

[BROADCAST CONTENT 2: 01010000•01010010•01001111•01010100•01001111•01000011•01001111•01001100•00100000•01001111•01001110•01000101•00111010•00100000•01001100•01001001•01001110•01001011•00100000•01010100•01001111•00100000•01010000•01001001•01001100•01001111•01010100]//

[BROADCAST TO REPEAT 999999 TIMES]//

Jack Cooper would come back, he just had to wait.


	2. It Stared Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter already? Yeah! I'm stoked that people have shown interest in this so far. It's inspiring me to write more.  
> Be patient with me as I go, I'm learning how to pace this story.  
> Enjoy!

Jack Cooper was on another sphere entirely. Recon had brightly explained how there were multiple planets/moons to complete missions on, and each planet/moon had a different collection of enemies. But when he started listing the different enemies they were against, it quickly made Jack's head spin. One enemy faction was enough, now there were six of them? Once the pair got a new ship that could jump, Jack found himself being whisked away to a rainy moon named Titan. He had told his Ghost that he learned best 'on the job', and it appeared that Recon took that to mean throwing him in head first to patrolling. Could be worse, he guessed.

However, now that he knew where in the galaxy he was, Jack felt another bout of unease. He wasn't supposed to be here. His battlefield was the Frontier, according to his inconsistent memory-which thankfully seemed to be returning, slowly-but when he asked Recon about it, the small entity had never heard of a region by that name. Maybe it wasn’t returning as he hoped.

After the pair landed and they met up with field commander Sloane, Jack took a moment to look over the rifle that was given to him. It was plain, the paint was scratched off in spots, and it took cartridges of some sort of blue plasma/energy instead of bullets. Recon called it an ‘energy weapon’. Jack was reasonably sure he’d fired something similar to an energy weapon in his past life. It functioned well in his hands, and that's all he really needed from a gun. The heavy machine gun he carried alongside the smart pistol was also worn but functional.

"Cooper! There's a weapons exchange going on! You should come observe the other Guardians." Jack looked up from his arsenal, startled out of his thoughts. A few quick glances revealed that Recon was waiting near a doorway somewhat impatiently. He slung the rifle over his shoulder and hurried to follow the small thing. 

The fallen were doing some sort of business according to Recon, but almost as soon as the fallen arrived, they were taken out. The four or five other Guardians were handling it with ease; Jack could hear a few of them sharing banter uncaringly. Even when the giant spider shaped tank dropped down off of a ship they continued to be at ease. Jack was a little annoyed at the apathy towards the battlefield, but that quickly changed for the worse when one of them was obliterated by the main cannon. Yet none of the Guardians were bothered, and the same man that was shot dead hopped over Jack to rejoin the fight.

"Ah, I mentioned that us Ghosts can revive you most anywhere, from most anything, right?" Recon chirped from over his shoulder. 

"Well, I know now." He muttered. While he was watching the chaos unfold, he realised the fallen had called in another tank. That's when he heard a foreign sound. It was both the sound of thunder and explosive fire. Jack turned to the bright glow in his peripheral to see a guardian whose arms were on  _ fire _ , holding what looked like a revolver that was  _ also _ on fire. They took a moment to line up before shooting the first tank when its engine was exposed. Whatever life was left in the thing was snuffed out; it collapsed, and with an escalating whirr, exploded. Both the fire and the firearm held by the other Guardian had vanished after the single shot.

"What was  _ that? _ " Jack turned to his Ghost. 

"That was a Gunslinger. They probably were using Celestial Nighthawk to boost their super. As a hunter, you can also do that."

"I can wield a gun made of  _ fire? _ "

"Or throw flaming knives from above. Both are considered 'solar supers'. There's also void and arc as well. The Light that I used to revive you gives you those abilities."

Jack wasn't sure what about the word Arc that sent chills down his spine, but he was going to avoid using arc skills. Meanwhile, the event he was observing had ended and the other Guardians had scurried off, probably for whatever adrenaline rush they could get next; almost nothing could kill them, so why not? He decided quickly he didn't want to think too hard on the significance of life in Guardians.

He found patrolling a zone to be a cakewalk. Kill this enemy, or stand here, or go scan that thing; all of the tasks were something his body was familiar with, even if his memory wasn't. His suspicion of being some sort of soldier in his past life was growing with every hour.

"Hey, Recon," Jack began as they were walking back towards Sloane. "Do other Guardians ever remember who they were before?"

Even though he couldn't see the Ghost, he could feel the hesitance. "Not usually. Zavala doesn't really agree with the idea of searching for it either. Ana Bray, the field commander on Mars, has a good idea of who she was and what she can do, though. But she's an outlier since Clovis Bray was such a huge part of the Golden Age. She didn't have to search very hard for information about herself."

Jack nodded, quietly discouraged. He finished reloading his rifle, pulling the action to chamber a round. "Let's see what's on Earth."

When they arrived at what Recon called the ‘EDZ’, Jack found himself dropped down next to the remains of some sort of industrial facility. What used to be roadway was collapsed and broken, and there was flooded water sitting to the side; his Ghost told him that other Guardians called this area ‘The Sludge’. As he walked forward, his Ghost kept pointing him in the right direction. The area was thankfully quiet, but Jack could hear the sounds of fighting across the way. Recon wanted to show him something he called, with no small amount of reverence, ‘The Shard of the Traveler’.

“Now hop up this oddly glowing riverfall, don’t give me that look, and follow the river in.” How Recon knew he was giving the Ghost a dubious look, he wasn’t sure. He followed the river in, hopping over smaller falls and the occasional rock to eventually find a clearing with a black and white... _ something _ in the center.

“What the  _ hell  _ is that, Recon?” As soon as he stepped foot into the clearing, it bent, pulling to the sides into an oval shaped portal. He didn’t like  _ that _ at all.

“Oh, uhm...it appears to be a Taken portal, but scans show it isn’t. It’s safe to pass through. Tons of other Guardians have.” Replied the Ghost, who was happily hiding in Jack’s armor.

He sighed and stepped through cautiously, to immediately find himself deep in an ethereal forest. Jack looked to the forest in front of him, and deeper within its eerie clutches, he could feel something resonating with himself. It was bizarre and almost unnatural, and he assumed that this ‘Light’ that powered him now was linking with the shard, which was quite weird. He had seen a little of what the shard was doing to the area, having gathered something called Dusklight shards on the way through the forest.

Jack moved through the forest until he turned a corner and saw it. When Recon had told him it was a shard, he figured maybe it was about the size of his ship, or a two story building. But no, it was  _ massive _ . When he looked up standing next to it, he couldn’t see the top.

“This is a lot larger than I expected.” He commented, slinging his rifle to his back to free his hands. “So, what do I do? Just touch it?”

“I think so? I don’t know, I just brought you here since it seemed like something every Guardian should see.” Jack turned back to the shard, raising one hand to lightly set it against the otherworldly piece. It was cool to the touch.

Nothing happened. No burst of magic, no bursting into flames. However, touching it felt a lot like touching a vibrating piece of machinery, except the vibrations went all the way through his body instead of just his arm. Every piece of him fell into the same resonance as the shard, so he guessed maybe it did do something; well, every piece except one. One small spot in the back of what he’d call his mind was still and empty, like it was waiting for something else to fill it, and the shard wasn’t good enough. Jack dropped his hand.

“Did you feel anything?” Recon asked with unbidden curiosity. Jack shook his head.

“Not really. Just made me feel odd. Reminded me of something.” Which was true. The empty spot in his thoughts was something he didn’t notice before. He had a suspicion that finding out more of who he was would help. “Thanks for showing me this, bud. I think I might find some answers back where you found me.” Recon gave an affirmation, and soon they were back in the ship, flying towards another, more familiar and less eerie forest somewhere else.

“Hold on, I’m picking up a broadcast signal..” Recon noted, little eyelight moving back and forth over the radio receiver. We’re a little too far out. I can’t piece it together.” Jack nodded, swooping lower to the ground and speeding up so that they would approach faster. At around the 800km mark to their destination, his Ghost cheered.

“I’ve got the broadcast! Let’s see… it’s actually two messages from the same location. The first one is in morse? It translates to ‘Jack?’ ...Who’s Jack?” Recon was halted by the shift in the air. His Guardian had gone rather still. “Cooper, is your name Jack?” it didn’t take a Warmind for Recon to put two and two together.

“The second message is in Binary...How odd, why is it not the same as before? Let’s see..” the little Ghost scanned the radio briefly as he collected the message. “It says ‘Protocol One: Link To Pilot’. What in the name of the Traveler..?” But Jack wasn’t listening anymore.   


_ “Pilot, we must establish a neural link in order to proceed. Please embark when ready.” Cooper hadn’t thought he could get anymore nervous, but that was obviously untrue. He stepped up into the opened cockpit of the Titan, looking at the myriad of buttons and systems. _

_ A sigh and a muttered ‘all right’ was all the stress Cooper allowed himself before he moved awkwardly to twist around and seat himself. As soon as he sat down, the powerful machine stood, his vision from the open cockpit swinging upwards nauseatingly fast. He didn’t have much time to feel the effects before the doors closed and he was in the dark. _

_ “Protocol One: Link to Pilot.” a pause, just enough for him to get a nervous breath in, “Establishing neural link.” _

_ Immediately his vision turned green at the edges before he lost all sight to whiteness, a sensation throughout his spine moving- _

__

“-ian! Cooper?? Guardian? Hey! COOPER!” Jack startled, finding himself in the cockpit of a jumpship instead of a giant robot. He looked over at his Ghost who was twisting his little pyramids worriedly. Jack took a moment to be amazed at how expressive a Ghost could be.

“Are you alright? What happened? You were just..sitting there, not responding.” Recon was worried, since Cooper hadn’t done any such thing prior to this.

“I...I think I had a flashback. I’ve heard that phrase before, a long time ago.” He took a slow breath to ground himself. “Where are the broadcasts coming from?”

His Ghost, still worried and hesitant to look away, eventually scanned the frequency before scanning the coordinates into the ship. “They're coming from where I found you. We’re not far as the crow flies, just over 500km at this point.” Jack nodded and pushed the throttle, speeding up more.

Jack landed lightly in the semi familiar clearing he had woken up in. He estimated that with interspace travel and different time in different places, it had been about 36 hours since he came back to life. He should probably sleep soon. It looked the same, small and empty aside from what he had initially assumed was a rock.

Now that it was staring back with that circular blue glow, he wondered how he had confused a machine for stone.

__

“Hello, Jack.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I initially planned for that to be in the next chapter, but it fit better as a cliffhanger here. As always, constructive critique is appreciated! I'll take suggestions as well, but I may or may not implement them.  
> Thank you! See you next chapter.


	3. Pilot Outlaw

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking with my story so far! I've been wrestling with some of the characterization here, so if you notice something out of character, I'll happily take the constructive remark! Please enjoy! There is a whole whopping one f-word here, be warned!

Recon was very worried. He wasn’t sure that he _wanted_ Cooper to remember, considering the man had already woken from a nightmare induced by one- he may not be telepathic, but he was in the room and he wasn’t stupid- and then mid flight had been pulled into another. Would this path lead him towards having a flashback at a fatal time? Maybe this is why Zavala didn’t want Guardians poking around for their past. 

Recon’s attention snapped up as Cooper took a few steps towards...he wasn’t sure _what_ it was. It spoke, which was alarming. It knew his Guardian’s name, which was even _more_ alarming. With all of the dirt and the angles of its shape, he wondered if it was some new Fallen construct. As he caught up with Cooper in front of him, he quickly threw that away. It was too human in construction. But he had _never_ seen anything like it. It didn’t appear to be able to move, so Recon floated over to it.

“What _are_ you?” The little Ghost asked, scanning the Titan in several places.

“Introductions must wait. I am in dire need of charged batteries. Pilot," at this, the large robot turned its optic to Jack, who still didn't have much recognition. "My scans indicate that there are no viable batteries nearby. You must find a suitable charge or charge station. Please come and retrieve the topmost battery from my left side."

Jack, his pilot, approached cautiously. BT had considered the outcome where Jack lost his memories in whatever impact stranded them here, but that didn't change the fact that his concern jumped high at his pilot's nonrecognition. Amnesia in humans was a tricky thing. Jack could very well _never_ remember. But he could also regain all of his memory. This would complicate things.

His pilot came up to his side, grabbing the handle of the battery. He stopped there, unsure of how to remove it before he twisted and pulled it out with well practiced motions. BT noticed the unconscious familiarity.

"So uh, we gotta charge this huh?" Jack asked the surrounding air, speaking mostly to himself. BT watched as the small thing that he had seen previously floated over to inspect what Jack was holding.

…

[SCANNING TARGET]//

[ANALYZING DATA]//

[TARGET IS AN UNKNOWN AI, NONTHREATENING. INDICATIONS OF HACKING ABILITY AND A DATABASE.]//

[FILE AS NEW ENTITY? Y/N]

[Y]

The small AI scanned his empty battery, presumably to identify its power source. BT was not surprised when it let out a huff of confusion.

"I've never seen anything like it! We don't have this sort of power in the Last City. The best option here is to take it apart and provide an alternate fuel." It admitted with disappointment. BT decided he matched the sentiment. But there were no other options.

Jack gave a huff, setting the empty battery down. He was about to sit down as well when he heard a shrill scream. The little AI disappeared in what looked like glowing mist while Jack unslung the oddly blue rifle. BT was struck with a very strong moment of helplessness. The last time he felt this helpless was after he gave Jack the SERE kit. It was not a feeling he liked. A broad scan was the most he could do in his damaged state with so little power left, but he would do whatever was in his power to keep his pilot alive.

"Pilot Cooper, scans show signs of movement beneath you. Be cautious." He warned.

It wasn't very long before the dirt burst open and _things_ crawled out. Bony, with green eyes and apparently guns, they were something out of a nightmare.

It didn't take Jack long to shoot down the first few, but more were swarming from the hole in the ground. "What the _fuck_ are these? Recon??" 

BT didn't see the little thing at first, until it appeared next to him. It appeared to be using his large frame to hide, which made sense considering how small it was in comparison. It responded to Jack by naming these aggressive aliens the 'Hive'; he surmised that 'Recon' was in fact, the name of the AI. He filed that away, as well as the new alien species.

Jack switched to the smart pistol after emptying the second magazine of his rifle, it would be faster than reloading. With aptly targeted rounds, he took down the crowd slowly but steadily. Until the same shriek echoed up the tunnel beneath the trio.

Out of the ground burst a Hive Wizard. It was floating in the air with some sort of membrane or tattered cloth forming a gown to hide its legs.

"That Wizard is giant! It's not a normal one!" Shouted Recon, safely tucked away. Jack leapt to the side in a roll as the creature launched projectiles from its hands. He cursed as he slid behind a tree at the edge of the clearing.

"Now would be a great time to use a super, Cooper!"

"I don't know how!"

"You don't- It's the moment when your adrenaline hits its peak! The highest point of the fight or flight response! Call to the Light inside your limbs and picture what you need!" Jack felt that certainly sounded like some sort of fairy tale hero moment, but what did he have to lose?

Jack dodged another series of blasts, letting another curse slip when he was pelted in the leg. His heart pounded in his ears, vision sharper than ever before, he could hear his blood in his veins. All of the pieces of himself fell into a synchronized resonance. He felt the energy travel up his arms, racing along underneath his skin. Embers flaked from his hands as he reached up for the revolver of fire that appeared with a flash.

The fire burning at his hands and arms didn't hurt him, but instead it made him feel energized and high on adrenaline. He'd never felt so _alive_. He took a moment to angle the revolver at the wizard before he fanned it, shooting a rapid six rounds into the boss of a Wizard. The Wizard crumbled away with a furious scream echoing through the small battlefield. Jack turned away as soon as it was gone to inspect his hands.

The gun and fire was gone, it had vanished as soon as he fired the sixth shot. But he still felt like his hands were a few moments away from igniting. After effects? He wasn't sure. The rush was gone, but its potential still lingered beneath his skin, ready to leap forth once more.

BT was unsure how to process what he had just witnessed. The data was there, he could clearly see Jack reach up and grab a glowing pistol on fire that seemed to have formed from within the pilot’s palm. That wasn’t something most humans did. He was pretty sure it wasn’t something Jack could do before. Scans indicated no burns and not even a raise in his body temperature. What _was_ that?

The only one not shocked at the turn of events was Recon, who moved out from behind BT as soon as the Wizard was gone. He floated down to the battery forgotten on the ground. "Cooper, the battery?"

Jack shook his hands out, turning to slump on the ground next to the Ghost. "Yeah, sorry." He pulled off his helmet to get a better look. 

BT noted that he was, indeed, still Jack. But instead of flat brown, his eyes looked like copper coins, lit from within by sunlight. He pondered if it was related to the fire that his pilot had been holding before; he could only speculate until he had enough power to self-restore his damaged systems.

"Look through your inventory, Cooper. I'm sure we have a screwdriver somewhere." The Ghost huffed, thwarted by simple screws. He was distracted by his frustration, so his Guardian's exclamation of triumph surprised him. He looked up to see the Dusklight shards in Cooper's hands.

"These are filled with Traveler's Light right? Let's see if we can power the batteries with them." Jack's grin, lopsided as it was, was a welcome sight after the day the three had. He turned to the titan, still grinning, "Once we get this battery juiced up, we can get to introductions out of the way and you won't need to conserve battery." Even without a face, the gratitude was obvious on the giant's form.

Jack worked on prying open the first battery, eventually resorting to jabbing his knife in it. As if on cue the screen on the end of the knife lit up and caused the inner battery to pop loose, which answered Jack's question as to what the knife was for. It was harder than it looked to make the shard and the battery compatible. Recon guessed it had been almost half an hour before Jack managed to get the shard inside the casing and sealed without any wires getting pinched or forcing the top closed.

"Here goes nothing." Jack said as he stood with the battery in hand. He scooped up his helmet and struggled to put it on briefly before he hoisted the battery over to the titan, sliding it back in the slot and giving it a half twist.

……

[PRIMARY POWER SOURCE DETECTED. REROUTING POWER TO BATTERY SYSTEM.]//

[BATTERY A IS AT 0% CHARGE]//

[BATTERY B IS AT 0% CHARGE]//

[BATTERY C IS AT 1100% CHARGE]//

[CALIBRATING SYSTEMS]//

[SOFT REBOOT? Y/N]

[Y]

BT powered off, letting the systems start taking from the apparently _very_ well charged battery. It was barely a minute before he was back online. Whatever was powering this ‘Dusklight shard’ was very potent, he noted. Unlike other scavenged power sources he’d used before, BT could feel the energy travel throughout his systems; a buzz of power almost overwhelming rushed through him and repaired his damages almost before he could. Fascinating.

BT planted an arm to the dirt, hoisting his legs underneath himself to then stand at full height. He wanted to inspect the damage to his weapon, but decided that pulling out a large gun in front of people who didn’t know or in Jack’s case, didn’t recognize him, was a Bad Idea. With emphasis. He instead knelt down to be closer to their level, even though he still towered over his pilot, and positively dwarfed the small AI.

“Introductions are in order now that I have power and am now functional. I am BT-7274, Vanguard-class titan of the Militia.” He pointed at Jack, “You are pilot Jack Cooper, you are my pilot.” BT then pointed at the Ghost. “You are named Recon, and you are an AI. But I do not know what sort.”

Recon let out an annoyed sound. “AI? I’m not just some human-made entity! I’m a Ghost! The Traveler crafted me!” Apparently, being called an AI hit a nerve. If the ‘Ghost’-BT filed away the name- had vents, it would probably be blowing steam like a train.

Jack felt weirdly dizzy. The name BT rang more bells in his head than a church and yet he couldn’t quite slot it in to a specific place. He obviously knew BT from before, but how? Why did he feel equal parts relief and rage? BT would most likely know how they got to Earth, so therefore Jack had to ask. Jack had to ask a lot of things. Then his mind caught up.

“Wait, have you been calling me pilot?” Even as the words left his mouth, Jack felt he had said something very similar a long time ago. 

“Yes. I can tell you have many questions. I hypothesize that once we reestablish the neural link, you’ll have your answers.” BT opened his cockpit doors, revealing a small chamber with a single padded seat. The seat was surrounded by a- _myriad of buttons and systems. He wasn’t even sitting inside and he was already_ -overwhelmed by what was happening.

Recon chose this moment to interrupt. “Now just hold on! You keep saying ‘pilot this’ and ‘pilot that’, but you say it like it's supposed to _mean_ something! What is this ‘neural link’ you’re talking about? How can we trust you?” Jack was completely caught off guard by the sudden protectiveness. BT understood exactly where the Ghost was coming from. The desire to protect Jack from harm was something they both shared. He knew exactly how to ease Recon’s worries. He closed the doors back up to be able to look the Ghost in the eye.

“May I send you some files? We are on the same side, and these files should prove this.” Recon paused to ponder, before accepting the files. The files turned out to be a single video file, and a collection of stills. The stills were of himself, and Jack, when he first revived him. The video...was of Jack’s death. How BT tried to save him with whatever he could, and how his Guardian’s stubbornness prevented it. Recon looked up at BT and they shared an understanding. BT wordlessly opened his cockpit once more.

“So, you two are on good terms now? No more bickering? Because that was going to get old real fast…” Cooper joked, very aware of the atmosphere change.

“Yes!” Recon chirped, “You wanted to find your answers right? I think BT here is your best bet. And, if anything happens I’m right here to rez you.”

“Well, here goes nothing.” Jack stepped up to the cockpit, and this time he didn’t pause, didn’t allow himself the time to get nervous. He sat in the chair, resting his head back as the doors closed.

“Protocol one: link to pilot. Establishing neural link.”

Jack’s vision went green at the sides for a brief moment only to white out near instantly. He felt the empty place in his mind be filled, but it was quickly lost in the sensation travelling up his spine. Once the feeling reached his head he remembered _everything_.

And then he blacked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so thankful to everyone who gave me a kudos! Kudos and bookmarks and comments are my fuel for each chapter! As always, suggestions are welcome, but I can't guarantee they'll be added.
> 
> Let me know in the comments if you guys want more interaction between Recon and BT?


	4. Asking Questions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took me far longer than I'd like to get out. But it's here! I've tentatively decided on five chapters with an epilogue, but depending on how next chapter wants to go, I may add more. There's no real fairy tale ending that I can think of since there's nothing to really resolve, but hey, whatever.

"Biometrics stable. Pilot Cooper is resting.”

“I mean, is it really that necessary to sedate him?”

“Pilot Cooper shows beginning signs of sleep deprivation. Well rested pilots perform better on the battlefield.”

“...I guess you’re right. That makes sense. And you’re sure he will be safe inside your, eh, pilot chamber?”

“Very few things are able to enter a sealed cockpit.”

“Got it.” Recon, even though he was a floating construct, managed to do an awkward nod. BT, even though he was an immensely complex AI, seemed to be a bot of few words. It made sense, the titan -not Titan, he reminded himself, BT wasn’t going to summon flaming hammers anytime soon- simply wasn’t as complex as a Ghost. And chatty in battle tended not to be ideal when the human can’t be revived after death...The quiet titan wielding the Hammer of Sol would be a sight to see, he decided.

BT interrupted the Ghost’s ponderings, “I have told you of our partnership, what is yours?”

Well then. “Ghosts revive the dead, empowering them with the Traveler’s Light. I revived Cooper, and for the most part, I can keep reviving him.”

BT filed that information away, making an effort to not be very bothered by the fact that Cooper had been very dead some three days ago. 

“Is this ‘Light’ what created the fire?” At Recon’s affirmative reply, BT took a moment to accept it. In this time or place he found himself in, there seemed to be multiple sources of power that regularly broke the laws of physics. BT's calculations were usually impeccable in that regard, but getting flung to a whole other section of the galaxy and _not_ being obliterated while doing it was not something he could properly calculate. Something outside the laws of physics would be hard to factor into future engagements, but he could manage.

…

[ADD VARIABLE TO DATA Y/N?]

[Y]

[DEFINE TRAVELER’S LIGHT]//

[TRAVELER’S LIGHT: POTENT FORCE THAT DOES NOT OBEY THE LAWS OF PHYSICS]//

[VARIABLE EXAMPLES REQUIRED]//

[EXAMPLE ADDED: PJC58138.V]//

…

[‘MAKE JOKE ABOUT FIRE ARMS TO JACK’ SAVED TO ALERTS]//

It wasn't until the sun had set and rose again that Jack stirred. It took him longer than he'd like to collect what had happened in the last few days and link it to his newly recovered memories.

'Oh, hell.' He thought.

"It's good to see you awake, Cooper. You were in need of rest." BT's voice echoed through his helmet. He was equal parts relieved to hear his partner and angry about BT's attempt to keep him safe.

"I told you we were in this together, BT." Jack's voice, as quiet as it was, held a lot of hurt. "I was ready to give up my life to stop the Fold Weapon."

"Cooper...you know it goes against my protocol. If I have the ability, I must protect my pilot." BT replied.

"Why didn't you tell me you were going to throw me? We could've, you could've… the SERE kit! We could've pulled you out before the chassis hit the Fold!" Anger was starting to seep into his voice, and BT knew it was exactly how he expected Jack to take this situation.

"There would not have been enough control in the empty chassis to throw you safely out of the blast radius. I did the math. There was no other option." Jack didn't want to agree, but he knew, truly, that it wouldn't have worked. He had to accept that, even though it didn't abate the anger.

Jack was still upset, but their argument  _ had _ been settled, so he brushed it aside for more troublesome problems.

“I doubt the tower would just  _ let _ me bring my giant, gun-toting, talking titan in. Let alone the fact that aside from the in-use hangar, there really isn’t a good place for him.”

Recon, having been silent for the heart-to-heart earlier since it wasn't his place, tilted in an approximation of a ponder. “I  _ know _ your ship doesn’t have enough space in it for BT, nor does it have the tech to carry him beneath.”

“I can stand atop the ship, I have done it before.” BT interjected. “Interplanetary travel may be difficult in that case.”

“The Farm!” Recon suddenly blurted. “He might not be able to sit  _ in _ the perimeter if we want to keep his presence on the low, but it's likely there's enough space for him there!”

Jack turned to his Ghost with confusion. “The Farm?”

“During the Red War, it was a refugee camp of sorts for Lightless Guardians and other survivors. Since the Tower was rebuilt, it's almost completely empty aside from a Cryptarch and a Postmaster.”

Jack nodded, thinking about the pros and cons before agreeing. “That sounds like our best option until we snag a ship that’s large enough to carry BT.” It didn’t take them long to realise that this option was going to be a challenge too.

“Hold on a moment.” Recon blurted as they were trying to figure how to take off while also having BT on top of the ship. “We should hijack a Fallen Skiff.”

  
  


A few minutes later had the trio back in front of the complex Jack and Recon obtained their first ship from. The heavy footfalls of the menacing titan beckoned out angry shrieks from the Fallen that were scavenging the area.

It quickly got very, very, loud before becoming very, very quiet. Multi target missile systems tend to do that.

Recon blinked as best as he could without eyelids. “Well, that surely got their attention.”

Jack quickly climbed out of BT’s cockpit, leaving Recon inside the safe haven as he hopped lightly into the titan’s palm. It wasn’t much longer before he heard the semi familiar sound of a Skiff. It’s arrival was preceded by a distant snap like a sonic boom that then dropped in pitch. The Fallen ship arrived above them from seemingly nowhere. Jack grinned.

BT took a very short time to line up the throw, since the Skiff wasn’t far. He didn’t even need to take a step for extra power; he threw Jack in a perfect arc. The nimble pilot snagged one of the tail fins, holding on until the drop tubes opened to release more Fallen. Jack flung himself at the closest one, kicking the unfortunate Dreg to the ground as he scrambled inside. He allowed himself just one moment to breathe and orient himself before he was sprinting down the halls. The Smart Pistol was doing all the hard work for him so that he could focus on navigating to the bridge. In minutes, Jack had cleaned the ship out and shoved his dataknife into the controls.

It took BT even less to wipe the last Fallen out of the area. He and the Ghost watched as the Skiff wobbled in the air before shakily descending. It was a rough landing. In the end, it took the trio longer to figure out how to carry BT securely than it did to procure the Skiff itself.

"As much as I want to stay together, bringing BT with us on missions for the Tower just isn't practical. We need to drop him by the Farm still. You need to see the other zones."

Jack voiced a valid question. "The comms that BT and I are equipped with can't support transmission from that far away. How can we keep in contact?"

"I think if I give BT some data on our comms system, he can expand his. Right?" Recon asked the titan currently strapped to the back of the skiff.

"With three powered batteries, it should be easy to do so." Since they made one battery successfully for BT, the group assembled the other two batteries to power off of the other shards Jack had.

After dropping BT at the outskirts of the Farm, with a strongly worded demand that he radio them if anyone approaches, the Ghost and Guardian took their not-skiff to Nessus.

"You've met the Fallen and the Hive, Nessus has two other enemies on it. The Cabal, who were responsible for the Red War, and the Vex."

"Yeah, I've seen videos and photos of the Cabal in the Tower. But I don't know what the Vex are?" Jack relaxed from the controls to look over at his Ghost, they were in FTL jump to the Centaur. While the pair were jumping to their destination, Ghost pulled up a chart of energy waves. There were two graphs with the same wave pattern.

"The Vex are also why I want to go to Nessus in the first place. You see, when I scanned you and BT, I noticed an energy reading. I don't have a scan of every residual energy available, but considering your circumstances, the Vex are most likely to be involved.."

"Why the Vex?"

"The Vex have some amount of control over time. The leading theory as to why we haven't been time traveled out of existence is because of the Traveler's Light. But you should ask a Warlock if you want to know more."

Jack shook his head quickly "nope. I'm good. I don't want to be glued to a chair for sixteen hours." Recon laughed as the pair left their jump to enter the atmosphere below.

It didn't take the two of them long to see that yes, the Vex were involved  _ somehow _ with how BT and Jack arrived there.

As soon as Jack landed on the surface and stepped into the open, a dozen or so red optic lights snapped to him.

"Uh-oh" chirped Recon. Jack agreed with that sentiment as he narrowly dodged far too many weapons being aimed at his person.

"Quite the welcome party!" He huffed. It didn't take him long to start decimating the shiny robotic miniature army that gathered to attack him. But it didn't matter because anywhere he went, if there were Vex, they stopped what they were doing and turned to attack. The only time he didn't get mauled instantly was when he walked in on a few Guardians preventing what his Ghost called a "Spire Integration". Whilst fighting the masses Jack was using his super more, feeling more comfortable each time he pulled the flaming gun. 

Since he felt comfortable with the fire, he mentally switched to what Recon called Void energy. He realised that was a mistake. He had no idea what he was doing. A passing Hunter noticed his confusion at the switch to violet instead of red, and helpfully showed him how to draw a shadow shot. Jack felt rather accomplished when he managed to tether some twenty odd Vex at once. He did not feel accomplished by the number of eyes on him, both Vex and other Guardians who has noticed the vendetta the Vex had.

"Let's get out of here. I don't like those stares." Jack muttered when he had a free moment.

"Agreed."

“I have a theory.” Recon said after they had both left Nessus and retrieved BT.

"What is your theory?" BT asked.

"The energy scans I got off the two of you are eerily similar to the scans I managed to get of the Vex energy when they teleport."

"So you're saying, without a doubt, these Vex are somehow involved in how we traveled billions of light years instead of dying in an explosion?" 

"If I can get access to the scans of the area you two were in, back when you landed, then I can be sure."

BT brought up the obvious problem. "Cooper and I hit the surface of Earth a long time ago. The Vex may have time travel, but we do not."

"That's why we're going to Osiris." Jack furrowed his eyebrows, mentally backtracking through the brief history of the Vanguard he'd been force fed.

"The previous Warlock Vanguard?" Recon nodded.

"If there's anyone who knows about time travel and the Vex, it's him."

“So! How is the...uh, Sundial going?” the Ghost beside Recon turned to look at him sharply.

“The Sundial? We finished with that a while ago! You can’t have been living under a rock that whole time, I  _ know _ you’ve been to the Tower since the Young Wolf rescued him.” a pause. “What’s your  _ real _ reason for chatting with me?” She turns sly. “This visit wouldn’t have to do with your KinderGuardian, would it?”

He was definitely not as nonchalant as he intended, he gave a cough, which was a giveaway to his bluster considering Ghosts can’t choke. “Nope. Not at all. Uh, thank you for noticing him. Heh, we’ve only been fighting together for a few days…” It’s his turn to pause. “He calls me Recon. I have a name now!”

The two Ghosts take a moment to observe Cooper. The pilot turned Hunter is cursing vividly as he becomes targeted by  _ every single _ Vex within sight. He hops over the top of a Goblin, planting his foot on the wide headplate before using his boosters to propel himself up onto the steep cliff face and run along it. Recon can practically feel Sagira’s nonexistent eyebrow raise. Jack and Recon had chosen to come at this time of day because it was almost always devoid of other Guardians. Very few of them needed to do anything with the Sundial anymore.

“The Vex seem to really hate him, don’t they?”

“We've noticed, yeah. Doesn’t matter what patrol zone we’re at, if there’s Vex, they go out of their way to target us. ”

Sagira watched Jack leap to the side and land on an unlucky Harpy. “Uh-huh...and where did you find him again?”

“A forest on Earth.”

“A forest...You wouldn’t happen to mean The Forest that we warned everyone to avoid when Osiris was Vanguard due to the high Vex interest and energy in the area?”

“In my defense, I  _ was _ looking in the EDZ when I was tugged in a direction! I followed the pull a really long way and by the time I realised where I was, his remains were in front of me. You  _ can’t _ expect me to leave my Guardian there.” Recon huffed, but was sheepish. Sagira rolled her one ‘eye’.

“No, I guess not.” she sighed. “What did you come to ask us, Recon?” Sagira asked. It was obvious that Recon had something very big that he needed help with, and since he didn’t mention Ikora or Asher, it was something that he wanted to keep the Vanguard oblivious to. Depending on what it was, she may or may not have to coerce Osiris.

“If possible, We need to know what exactly that Vex energy was. Cooper is..well, they're both...It’s complicated.”

“They..?”

“Well, it’ll be easier to show you.” Recon turned away and switched comms. “BT, it’s Recon, I’m calling a Titanfall” a pause. “No, ah, it's not critical, but it’ll definitely be appreciated.”

Sagira interjected, “BT? Who is-”

“I’ve sent you the coordinates. Hot Drop.” He turned back to the Ghost next to him. “I’ll admit, I’m excited since I haven’t seen this live yet.” Recon switched channels once more to speak to his Guardian. "Hey, Cooper. Stand by for Titanfall." A pause as Cooper responds, then, "ETA less than one minute."

Sagira gave him a scrutinizing yet confused look.

In the sky above Mercury, there was a brief and bright flash. From that origin point, there seemed to be  _ something _ dropping, and dropping fast. It slammed into the ground hard enough to shake boulders from their cliffs and nearby Vex off their feet. BT could be very intimidating to first time observers, especially since he came from above the planet and made a crater when he landed. He’d landed in front of Jack in a crouch, but stood almost immediately to let his pilot slide underneath him. BT grabbed Jack up with deft hands and placed him in the safety of the cockpit.

The Vex were not discouraged, instead they seemed to summon more to aggress the pair.  _ Something _ about the two of them really set off the Vex.

“Transferring controls to pilot” Although they were mostly surrounded, one volley of acolyte pods resolved that issue.

“Recon...what the  _ hell _ did you get yourself into?” asked Sagira.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sagira is fantastic, I love her. But yes! some sort of plot unfolds! I'll admit, the Vex are my favorite enemy faction, they're just so interesting lore wise.  
> If anyone wants to know what weapons Jack is using, let me know! As always, comments and constructive criticism is appreciated! Thank you for reading!


	5. The Hunter, Hunted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank everyone who waited patiently for me to finish this chapter. I struggled a ton on how to make everything flow together, as well as hitting writer's block. Then a bunch of sudden changes came about at my workplace and my whole daily schedule was upended because of the pandemic.
> 
> But it is here! Finally! Please enjoy! As always, I appreciate comments and feedback.

Convincing Osiris was something Sagira had plenty of practice with. Asking the man to help out of the pure goodness of his heart? No way. Asking him to solve a question or a puzzle through science? Absolutely. It would be simply extra that perhaps the solution benefits someone specifically.

That's how Jack found himself standing beneath a three-bladed fan-slash-death-by-jump-machine. BT was too big to fit through the triangular doorway, instead, he crouched in front of it. He could hear the conversation through Jack's helmet anyway.

“Scans show residual Vex energy on both you and your..machine..from the area that you were found in. We consider this energy to be from inside the Vex network. Although Guardians pass through the network briefly when they move through the portals, it is not long enough to leave any trace, let alone leave lingering energy." Osiris glanced up briefly as he paused, eyes moving between Jack and BT in the distance. "The fact that this energy has continued to remain on you even after becoming a Guardian means that it is highly likely you two were brought here via the Vex network."

Sagira piped in, "Osiris said the only things with enough power to move something that far would be a Vex artifact."

"The Ark." Jack breathed. Realization moved across his face as he took a moment to look at his hands before bringing his eyes up to the Warlock. "BT and I made direct contact more than once with this artifact called the Ark. Before we arrived here, the last thing I remember is falling into the destabilized activation of the Fold, a weapon with the Ark as its power source."

Osiris nodded as he was turning away. "Without this Ark directly in front of me, I can only speculate about its involvement in your situation, but that Ark you speak of could belong to the Vex. Bring me the eyes of several Vex. One of them may hold the information I seek. The Larger Vex will most likely provide more." Jack bid Osiris and Sagira farewell, thanking them for  _ some _ sort of direction.

"Larger Vex, huh? I guess it's finally time to take on some of those strikes."

Jack’s first rez since he was initially brought back was an ordeal. He disagreed with other Guardians on dying while in mission; while they didn’t care much at all so long as they were away from the tainting presence of the darkness, it wasn’t so easy for a trained soldier to ignore his survival instincts. Jack realised while he watched a Guardian get revived for the third time, that if he didn’t remember his life before arriving at Earth, he would be just as indifferent too. 

He died during his first strike. He’d done similar missions in the past, before this whole mess. Before the whole  _ Typhon _ mess. Assassinating an enemy officer was a mission he was familiar with, although only as suppressive fire. This was his first time doing such a mission where he was directly attacking the target, and he couldn’t even bring BT. The Vanguard wouldn’t let him take the mission alone, quoting something about inexperience.

Of all the ways to die, getting his head demolished by a ceiling due to a slight misstep in his launch from a Vex ring was not how Jack expected it to go.

It was more painless than he imagined, and he found himself alive, but dazed within twenty seconds of his demise. Even wilder to him, the two Hunters he was paired with were chuckling and one gave him a hard slap on the back. He found out quickly that those launch rings in particular were infamous for killing Guardians that way. Thankfully the rest of then strike went smoothly. But for Jack, the death and revival weren’t all that wild or frustrating, instead it was the ensuing discussion with BT after he finished his mission that caused an ordeal.

“I’m  _ fine _ BT-”

“My indicators detected a sudden cessation of vital activity while you were on Nessus, Pilot. I would not consider a lack of vital signs as 'fine'. ” BT knew that Jack was okay, logically. The man was in front of him, breathing and moving and talking, and he was well enough to debate with the Titan. But that did not change the fact that several hours ago, BT was in a sort of electronic frenzy. While the mech was not known to panic, suddenly being bombarded with far too many Protocol three indicators displaying large alarming text about the lack of vitals from Jack’s helmet would cause great concern in any Titan. The fact that the feed from Jack’s helmet was still blank and disconnected also added to Bt’s stress.

“We talked about this, buddy. The whole being a Guardian thing means I can’t really die permanently unless for extreme circumstances? I’m not planning on going around and leaping off cliffs without my jumpkit! Honestly it was an accident, what happened. The other Guardians said it was a common one.”

BT wasn’t totally placated, but he did relent. “It would be best that you don’t do it again. Please give me your helmet, Cooper. I need to reconnect with it. I cannot monitor your vitals properly without direct connection to you. Whatever happened most likely destroyed the original helmet and therefore disconnected us.” Jack had not thought of that. He sighed, realizing that he should probably avoid head damage in the future. He handed over his helmet so BT could create a new connection to it.

"If it happens again, Recon, could you let BT know?" Jack asked, to which the little Ghost agreed. The rest of their conversation was cut short when he received a mission prompt from Ikora, of all people. He changed course, and sent them to Io.

Jack checked over his rifle as he waited for Recon to unlock the Vex gate they were trying to get through. The pair were in some sort of cavern, now filled with fragments of Vex instead of a dozen Goblins, the floor and walls were a mixture between Io’s natural rock and the smooth parasitic Vex platforms. Their mission was simple; infiltrate into the deeper tunnels of Io and hack into every spire they could in order to retrieve Vex data and plans. Jack and Recon already hacked into two spires, and once they made it through this gate they were on their way to hacking a third. For some reason, the Vex had not deemed their poking as a threat yet, because once the Vex started to retaliate they were supposed to leave. Jack would’ve preferred to have BT as guard, but they were forced to leave him behind because it was Ikora who gave them the mission, and the tunnels were too small for a Titan.

“I’m still not sure what to think, Recon. Ikora’s definitely noticed our interest in the Vex.”

“As long as we don’t act suspicious about it we will be fine.” Recon replied, somewhat preoccupied. “She doesn’t usually send her Hidden to follow other Guardians unless they’re acting suspicious. If anyone asks, though I doubt anyone will, we can say that we just like killing Vex.”

Before Jack could respond, the ghost gave a small cry of success followed by the sound of a Vex portal. The pair hopped through without hesitation. The other side of the portal was straight Vex interior, not a rock in sight. It was narrow and low, the room was just big enough for the gate itself before the tunnel became small, and Jack found himself needing to crouch in order to move through it.

“Everytime we have to move through Vex architecture, I am reminded how much I hate it.” Jack grumbled as he stood and stretched his knees out. The tunnel was shorter than he expected, widening suddenly to a huge square room with a single spire in the center. He followed Recon to the middle of the room, feeling on edge for a reason he couldn’t place. This was too perfect of a set up. An obvious dead end, aside from another corridor ledge very, very high up that Jack wasn’t sure he could reach, even with an extra jump.

“I don’t like this, Recon..” He muttered, eyes moving around the room as he gripped his rifle tighter. “This looks like a trap.”

Recon was already working through the spire, pulling data from it with ease. “If it was a trap it would have been sprung by now. No point in waiting, I’d think.”

Jack disagreed. The feeling grew exponentially the longer they stayed, making the pilot turned Hunter antsy. He wasn’t sure why there was no sudden onslaught of Vex. It wasn’t until he took another visual pass around the room that he realised anything at all.

The low tunnel they used to enter the room was blocked off.

“Recon. We need to go. We really need to go, right now.” he muttered, glancing back at his small companion who was proverbially waist deep in Vex information.

“Alright! Goodness, Cooper. Let me extract from the network.” Recon huffed, making a sound like an annoyed sigh even though he did not have lungs or a mouth to sigh out of. “We’ve got what we needed, anyway.” It took entirely too long in Jack’s mind for the Ghost to leave the spire alone and hide away wherever they go, and he was right.

Not even a minute later, the undeniable sound of a Vex teleporting into the room brought that unnerved feeling back with a vengeance. A low “oh  _ shit _ .” left his mouth once he turned and saw the  _ largest _ Minotaur he’d ever seen. 

He was not a short man, but he came up below it’s knee. He didn’t get much more time to think about it as the Minotaur started shooting. As soon as Jack brought his linear rifle up he knew it was futile. The shield visible through his reticle’s filter was the kind where guns wouldn’t penetrate. He still tried a shot, but he wasn’t surprised when it dissipated into the shield. “Can you get me a name for this thing, Recon?” he asked as he dodged another powerful shot from the Vex’s weapon. He could feel the crackle of electricity in the air from how close it was. While he waited for Recon to pull _anything_ useful, Jack spent most of his energy narrowly avoiding the shots fired at him. Another barely avoided shot forced him back against the wall of the room; a glance up revealed that the one small corridor he saw earlier was just to his left. He felt fire in his hands.

Jack leapt, but instead of pulling his golden gun, he flung knives of fire towards the Minotaur. As he hung briefly suspended in the air, he watched every knife find its target, and then get absorbed by the shield. Cold fear started to sink into his bones; he had to get away, he wasn’t prepared to fight something like this.

He turned in mid air and jumped again as he was starting to descend, carrying himself to the wall behind him. His jumpkit held him there as he ran the few meters to the ledge and he scrambled into the tunnel with not a minute to spare. He felt the power of the impact behind him as he was sent tumbling, and then falling down, down, down. He landed roughly in a room he'd passed through earlier. The room spun.

It took Jack more time than he'd liked to recover, but he knew he needed to leave the cave system, now. The longer they stayed, the more likely that Vex would find them. Recon seemed to agree, because he directed him through the tunnels without any of the Ghost’s usual flair.

“You couldn’t find anything?” He asked. The pair was back out in the open canyons on Io, and a good amount of time had passed since the run-in. Jack was taking a short moment to ease his shaken nerves. Being attacked suddenly by the largest and strongest Vex he’d ever seen would easily shake anyone’s nerves.

“Nothing. That Minotaur hasn’t been seen before.” a pause from the little Ghost. “My best guess is that the Vex are paying attention to us, and instead of just full on attacking, they set up an ambush.”

“We haven’t seen the Vex do that before.” Jack replied, standing from where he was leaning against some rocks.

“The Vex have been known to change tactics once they learn about a new threat. Though I’m not sure the fact that the Vex see us as a potential threat is a good one.” Jack agreed with that sentiment, picking up his rifle while Recon hid away. Before he could reply, a chill went up his spine. A very familiar chill.

His instincts were the only reason he survived the next moment; as he dropped down flat on his stomach he heard the unmistakable sound of rock being obliterated behind him. Jack wasted no time, pushing off the ground into a full sprint. He didn’t have a specific direction, just  _ away _ from the Minotaur that followed him out of the caverns. This cycle continued for the next several hours. Jack would lose the thing, only for it to find him suddenly again and again. Only after he fled deep into the firebase did the Minotaur lag behind, most likely due to the resistance from the Cabal he snuck past. Recon used that short respite to call their ship and get the two of them the _hell_ out of dodge.

It happened again on Nessus. Jack wasn't even antagonizing the Vex this time, instead he was cleaning up after killing a troublesome Fallen hiding within Failsafe's wreckage when the wall behind him practically exploded. 

Once again without BT, Jack was left running. For every ten steps out of Jack, the Minotaur crossed with one. He Had to slow it down if he was to get away; a few moments later he saw the opportunity he needed, so he took it. He twisted mid jump, his hands pulling back the bowstring before he had even summoned it fully. Jack let it fly, striking the ground in front of the Vex. He could have cheered when he saw the anchor successfully tether it, but he wasted no time to gloat and instead stuck his landing before sprinting away.  


"The Vex don’t send Minds on hunting missions. They are targeting you specifically. Most likely due to your intrusion when you were sent here." Osiris explained, his voice stern through the audio connection. "They dislike loose ends. Eliminating you is probably a high priority, hence this Minotaur.”

Sagira butted in, “Stay away from Vex controlled areas until Osiris and I can find more information about what collective is targeting you."

Jack glanced back at BT, able to see the titan's concern even without a face to express it. "Got it."

Jack sat on top of BT's cockpit, checking over his jumpkit. "If the Ark is indeed a Vex artifact, what was it doing out in the Frontier?" He mused, glancing out over the rolling hills outside of the Farm. "Are we even in the same universe? If we flew far enough, could we reach Harmony from here?"

"I know not, Pilot." Replied BT. "It was a very long time from when we crashed to when you were revived. The Ark most likely carried us through time as well." Their conversation was interrupted by Recon as he reappeared.

"When the Collapse happened, a lot of history was lost. We could have lost information about your so-called Frontier when the Golden Age ended." Recon added.

Not too long after, Jack turned in for the night, laying down in the grass. BT noticed the small Ghost gazing out thoughtfully once his pilot had fallen asleep.

"What is it you are thinking about?" He asked, using a radio channel as to not wake Jack.

Recon turned to BT, imitating a sigh before floating closer. "I worry about this Minotaur. It chased Cooper down twice, what's to say that it won't follow him to other planets where the Vex have no hold?"

The titan pondered that concern. He too, was worried about this Vex that had chased his pilot across two planets. It was not in the Vanguard's databases, nor did its paint pattern match any of the known collectives. Its shield did not give to firearms and it was immune to a Guardian's attack. "Jack plans to complete a small mission on Mars tomorrow. If we can find a spot, he was intending to call for Titanfall. Using my weapons we may be able to break its shield if it comes for us."

"Let's hope it doesn't."

"Agreed."

Tomorrow greeted Jack with bitter winds and frozen Hive. He was moving steadily through the caverns, eliminating Hive as he searched for the artifact Ana Bray had insisted was deep in the caves. So far, there hadn't been a gap large enough for the titan to drop through yet either. His comms lit up with a burst of static, so Jack paused. Of all the people to enter their comms channel right now, Osiris was unexpected.

"That Minotaur. It is called Zethos, the Tracking Mind." He said with more force than Jack had heard from the Warlock. "Its sole purpose is to track down and remove whatever has contaminated the Vex network."

“And since BT and I travelled through it to get here, we are the next target.” Jack replied, feeling a chill down his spine from more than the cold.

"It will follow you to the ends of time unless you destroy it, or it destroys you. That would be a death you  _ won't _ come back from." Sagira responded, and she was about to say something else when Jack spoke up.

"Well, then. It's time we take it down."

The Hunter pilot found the Minotaur waiting for them on a large flat cliff just beyond the cave’s exit; it must have been too big for the caverns. Jack was not going to take any more chances, calling for BT as soon as he saw a large enough section of the canyon wall.

"ETA one minute." BT responded, followed by Recon. “Standby for Titanfall.”

The Minotaur had already started its attack, so Jack couldn't respond. He dived to the side, sliding across the frozen earth to avoid the Vex weapon. He only had to survive for one minute. He could do that.

It took a lot of dodging, a few close calls, and one almost fatal hit before the welcome sound of something breaking the atmosphere echoed above. BT hit the ground fast and pulled Jack into the cockpit even faster.

Jack didn’t get the chance to take the controls, because the Minotaur teleported forward, arm raised to strike the titan only for it to be caught against BT's own limb. The seemingly impenetrable shield flickered where it made contact with the titan.

Recon noticed. "The shield! I think you need to hit it physically instead of projectiles!"

BT agreed. "The shield resonates the same energy as what lingers from our travel, the two forces must cancel each other out." He brought his other arm back, pausing a brief moment to wind up power before striking the Minotaur against the side. Then he did it again. They saw the shield fragment but not shatter as the Minotaur stepped back, aware of their goals.

"Transferring controls to pilot." BT stated, "Laser Core ready."

"Not yet big guy." Replied Jack. He was rushing the titan towards the Vex, using the dash to move to the side and avoid the weapon's damaging beams. He was shaking from adrenaline, the same sort of life threatened rush he felt when he fought Slone and when he climbed into the Ark launcher. They were getting closer, but he was out of dash and BT took a hit, thankfully not a direct one. It still sent the pilot and titan to slam against the cliff wall.

"Damage is not critical. I can still fight." BT pushed them back up and readied himself. Without awaiting a response, he charged forward under Jack's control. Recon called out a warning, they were not quite close enough, but it was going to teleport. BT used their freshly charged dash and leapt forward, grabbing the enemy before it could move away and slamming his metal fist into its chest.

The shield shattered, falling away and vanishing from sight. The Minotaur retaliated by striking the arm that held it, denting the metal and wrenching the grip free. It wasted no time teleporting behind the trio, leaving Jack to whirl BT around.

"Activate Laser Core!" He shouted.

The fight was long, and both sides were taking heavy blows.

Jack was heaving air into his bruised chest. His vision blurring from pain in his ribs. The Minotaur Zethos across from them was no longer pristine. But it was faring better than BT was. Jack grit his teeth, hands tightening on the controls until they hurt. They had been fighting it for what felt like forever. They'd needed to take its shields down again after breaking them the first time, and now they were at a momentary standoff. They didn’t have much time before the shields were up again.

"C'mon buddy, here we go." He moved to rush the Minotaur once more. But instead, he felt his vision clear and his body synchronize in a powerful hum echoed by the dusklight shards within BT's batteries.

Jack was adverse to using the Arc abilities. Something about their blue tint and the feeling of them reminded him too much of the Fold. But now, he felt perfectly in sync with them. Sparks snaked down his arms as he moved BT to aim his rifle. He lined up the shot as Zethos started moving closer. Adrenaline hit him in a second wave, and in pure instinct he ended up activating his super when he pulled the trigger.

Instead of a staff of lightning like he'd seen other Guardians use, the arc energy surged through him and then, through BT, drawing the energy to one single spot before being released at the end of the gun barrel at a speed faster than he could see.

The lightning bolt of a bullet hit true, shattering the aptly named 'juice box' and causing the Tracking Mind to collapse. He had only a moment to realise his victory before BT sank to one knee. The screen before Jack showed several low battery alerts. Whatever he'd just done drained almost every ounce of power from BT.

"Pilot...I am in urgent need of a battery." BT stated, breaking the still moment. With a chorus of "right, right, right" Jack climbed out and quickly pulled a battery. When he opened it, the shard that once powered it was dark and it crumbled to dust when he went to grab it. His hands were shaking as he replaced the shard and then the battery. Jack sank to the ground, back against BT’s leg as he looked at the defeated Zethos. He grinned.

“YES!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the "end". I intend to write an epilogue, but I don't know how soon. I want to write more from BT's perspective, so I'll do something in the epilogue for that.
> 
> I struggled a little on how to go about doing the whole Arc super thing I had planned. I knew it could become overpowered, or even seem like a cop-out. But I figured that since BT was running on energy from the Light, it would make some amount of sense that it could be channeled through him. I figured that destroying the batteries would be a good enough balance. (honestly at the core of it I just wanted Jack and BT to be cool and badass together. TTvTT)
> 
> Thank you all for reading! I posted it thinking maybe I'd get like, ten views. But here we are and I am so glad to have made something that was enjoyable. Who knows, maybe I'll write another fic for something else?

**Author's Note:**

> A good amount of the action in the fic is going to be based on my experience playing Destiny 2 as a Hunter. The first thing I noted when playing the Titanfall 2 tutorial was that the double jump that the pilots had was similar to the double jump. Once I made that comparison, it was all over and a plot began to develop.


End file.
